Sunshine and shadows

If there were such a thing as an American moviemaker laureate, the title would go to writer-director John Sayles. Since 1980 he has been addressing moral, political and personal issues in American culture, with special emphasis on the dilemmas that confront the working class at the crossroads of love and hope.

Sayles is something of a cross between Eric Rohmer, the French New Wave auteur whose characters gently wrestle with personal conflicts, and the playwright Eugene O'Neill, whose sad sojourners are so crippled by unrealized dreams they are barely able to function. Sayles's characters are rarely as romantic and articulate as Rohmer's, nor as emotionally damaged as O'Neill's pipe-dreamers. In Sayles's world, people accept their disappointments and just keep moving forward.

Sayles's first film was the highly influential Return of the Secaucus Seven, which deals with friendship among aging '60s activists. He has tackled class differences (Baby, It's You); corruption and the creation of myth (Eight Men Out); the urge to unite for a larger purpose (Matewan); and the moral complexity of big-city politics (City of Hope). Sayles's greatest achievement, Lone Star, suggests how vital a homeland can be to one's view of the world. It uses the history and development of Texas--with its frontier justice, macho posturing, border disputes and, most of all, powerful legends--to help frame the story.